


When Dreams Send You Running

by TheBlackPaladin21



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-16 06:43:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10565793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBlackPaladin21/pseuds/TheBlackPaladin21
Summary: Emperor Zarcon still wants the Black Lion and will stop at nothing to achieve it, even if it means breaking the Paladin that comes with it to achieve that goal.Warning: Character Torture and mentions of blood. If you don't like these things, please do not read this story.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is my first story to post on this website! I hope you enjoy it! And if you recognize this from other websites or prefer to read on other websites, this story is on my Wattpad and Fanfiction accounts as well. Usernames for both are JediPiggyPrime (Wattpad) and NightwingNinja17 (Fanfiction)
> 
> Anyway, please enjoy this story and let me know how you like it or what I could improve on! I'll only accept positive criticism. So if you have nothing good to say, please don't say it.

Prologue:

Electricity coursed through the underbelly of Zarcon's ship as several Druids, continued their work in locating the Black Lion for their emperor. They knew him and his paladin needed to be apprehended soon, or the emperor would have their heads.

They stopped and the body of Zarcon crashed to the floor as the energy was completely sucked out of him for a few brief seconds.

"Even if we were to find the lion, how do you plan on severing the link between the lion and his paladin? The last time we tried that it didn't work," Zarcon question Haggar, the leader of the druids and a formidable opponent to Voltron.

"I have been perfecting a new technique that will weaken not only the lion, but also weaken the paladin the more we strike. I also happen to know exactly who the Black Paladin is and I think it will help in our fight against him."

"What is this new technique?" Zarcon moved to follow the Druid who was drifting into the halls of the headquarters.

"It would be easier to demonstrate on someone," Haggar stopped and opened a nearby door. It revealed a torture chamber. Inside sat a prisoner who seemed to be causing something to float with his mind. He was chained in a star patter to the wall with the only thing hanging was his head.

"As per my instructions, I ordered this prisoner to connect with the device. I have programmed it to respond only to him," Haggar raised her right hand and aimed it at the prisoner. A purple orb suddenly appeared in front of him, "He's been at this for days and the longer he goes the more powerful the bond between them."

Their attention was then diverted to the sound of the man yelling in pain. The purple orb in front of him grew ever so slightly bigger sending waves of electricity and something else towards him. This shocked him hard.

Haggar uttered a few words in a language only the druids knew and it became clear that the man before them was beginning to drift off into a blissful state of unawareness.

After a few seconds, sparkly orbs of light began floating out of the man and started floating towards the orb.

After a minute of this going on, the device which had been floating hit the ground and the man stumbled against the restraints. His head slumped against his chest and he went completely limp. Haggar watched as the Emperor seemed impressed with her latest development.

"Is he dead?" Zarcon approached the limp prisoner and investigated the body himself.

"No, only unconscious. I've managed to find a way to take just enough quintessence to render him weak enough to get inside his mind and put him to sleep. Now we have a way to capture both the Black Lion and the Black Paladin."

Zarcon smiled which was a rarity for him to even be doing that.

"And as for the identity of the paladin, I believe we are dealing with Takashi Shirogane, but his friends call him Shiro. He was a human who we capture from the planet Kerberos. He is also the man whom the prisoners call 'Champion'." Haggar recounted some of the battles that Shiro had fought in to the Emperor and explained how skilled of a fighter he truly was, "We won't be able to entice him anywhere near us though. He's too smart for that."

"We will force him here. Plant something in his mind that will force him to come to us," Zarcon raised a fist in a determined manner, "That Black Lion belongs to me and if we can figure out how this Shiro managed to form a strong bond so fast, maybe we can do the same thing. And soon Voltron will be ours!"

Zarcon let out a terrible laugh and guided Haggar out of the chamber. He glanced back one more time towards the unconscious prisoner and smiled. He knew that the Black Paladin was in for one big surprise.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

The noise of blaster fire came out of no where as the training room came to life with simulated drones. The goal of the exercise was to destroy 35 drones before your opponent did. So far in the match, Keith had twenty three and Lance had sixteen."

"Check this out!" Lance called out from in the middle of the training room. He had managed to do four back hand springs, all the while taking out drones which were made to simulate Galra sentries. He had been working on his hand to hand combat ever since their last encounter with Zarcon at the Command Center.

Secretly though he was trying to impress both Shiro and Princess Allura. 

"Quit showing off, hot shot," Keith destroyed four more before taking his sword to the fifth, "You'll only get yourself killed! And besides, I've already destroyed about ten more of them."

Lance froze in place for a few seconds before returning the fire to two more drones about to fire at him. The comment from his rival teammate enraged him and caused him to be more focused. 

"Training simulation complete," The onboard computer simulator called out to the two combatants, "Keith has won the match. Score Keith, 35, Lance 21."

Keith smirked at Lance.

Lance just stalked off in the direction of the Princess and Shiro who were sending their own smirks right towards the young hot head. This only enraged him even more.

"He's got a long way before he is going to be able to defeat Lance," Shiro turned towards the Princess, "Is there anyway that we can use that game to be able to strengthen certain weaknesses for each one of us?" 

"I honestly have no idea, I'll have Pidge look into it," Allura turned towards Shiro and smiled, "Now, I think it's your turn in the simulator! You haven't fought at all since we created the new game!"

Shiro's face contorted into one of surprise. In truth, he didn't really want to because he was afraid that fighting them would cause unwanted flashbacks from his time in the Galra arena. He had felt that he just got a handle on not dwelling on the past and he didn't want it to come back in full swing.

"Shiro, are you with me?" Allura waved her hand in front of Shiro's face. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts of his worry.

"Oh...um yeah...um. Who will I be battling against?" Shiro rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. He hardly ever zones out unless it had something was caught in a flashback.

"Me!" Allura pulled her staff from the nearby wall and proceeded to walk into the training room.

"Ooh! This ought to be interesting," Lance said as he leaned up against the control console. Keith, Hunk, Pidge and Coran followed soon after.

"Pidge will you up the count from 35 to 50 for me please?"

"You've got it Princess!"

Shiro readied himself by starting up the Galra tech in his arm. He then turned his back towards the Princess who was readying her staff in her hand.

"Simulation will begin in three...two....one," And with the countdown complete, solid holograms appeared in front of them. But no one was expecting Allura turning around and striking Shiro in the back with the end of her staff. This caused the Black Paladin to stumble forward and miss the drone he was about to attack. He turned towards Allura with a confused glare, but quickly recovered to attacking the drones.

Shiro now went after three of the drones which were approaching him with great speed. They seemed to be faster than normal which made him wonder if Pidge also upped the level of them. He dispatched them quickly but was then struck in the head with the staff again.

This made Shiro a bit angry as he was trying to focus on the objective, but it didn't seem like Allura got the game at all. Allura seemed to take the hint that Shiro didn't know what was going on so she decided she was going to explain her intentions.

"Shiro, I'm fighting you too now. But in order for you to dispatch me, you must first destroy 49 drones without getting hit by me," Allura took another swing towards his head but this time, Shiro dodged it without a problem. 

He used the added attacker to his advantage now that he knew what Allura was up to. Every time he dodged one of her attacks, it seemed to put him in a great position to destroy the drones.

It seemed like it was yesterday that he was fighting in the arena when he was a prisoner. He remembered all the fights that he had against swarms of creatures or beings that he'd never seen before. It seemed as if the fight was fresh in his mind as he swung his Galra enhanced arm around to dispatch as many drones as he could lay his hands on.

And he finished destroying the 49 drones Allura instructed him to destroy with ease and then he readied himself to finish off his final opponent. 

"Who do you think will win this?" Lance asked his friends as they watched the two seasoned warriors among them make their way around each other, sizing one another up.

"My bet is on Shiro," Keith commented quickly. Pidge agreed with Keith and both turned their heads back towards the battle at hand.

"Allura's staff isn't one to be messed with so my bet is on Allura," Coran stroked his mustache as he made the comment. Hunk then agreed having been on the tail end of that staff more times than he could count.

Shiro felt like he had enough time to size Allura up. He then pulled his mechanical arm back and began to run forward. He was going to try and knock the princess's weapon out of her hands.

But all of a sudden, his vision flash to the face of the Druid Witch Haggar. She wore a menacing smile on her face and then a vision of some people cowering in their homes as the Galra attacked them invaded Shiro's mind.

" _They will die if you don't come and save them_!" Haggar spoke just to Shiro, " _You are their only hope for survival, champion_!"

He could feel the blood drain from his face as the image of the witch and the people in danger became ever clearer.

Shiro then felt electricity hit him like a ton of bricks. He then focus on the actual reality and realized that Allura had hit him with a fully charged staff. He looked into her eyes for a few seconds and then collapsed to the ground. 

Everyone rushed to him, especially Allura. 

"Shiro, are you alright?" Pidge called out. Allura sat the black paladin up and silently whispered a word of thanks that her staff was only set to a paralyzing blast.

Shiro shook his head in confusion as the images of the destroyed homes and cowering people played over and over again in his mind. But for some reason, he couldn't remember who it was that planted those images in his mind. Even for the lapse of memory however, he also managed to piece together what planet was in trouble.

"Shiro, you look like you've seen a ghost, would you care to tell us what's going on?" Allura rubbed his back in a manner conducive of a parent comforting a child.

"I...." Shiro struggled to find words for what he was seeing. It wasn't like him to be at a loss for words, "We need to go to planet Pollux immediately."

Shiro sluggishly tried scrambling to his feet, but was met with protests from his friends and a firm push to sit back down on the ground.

"And what makes you say that?" Pidge sat down on the other side of her friend and held onto his mechanical arm.

"I...I had a vision," Shiro lower his head into his hands in despair, "I saw the people of the planet cowering in their homes in fear. All the while, Zarcon and his men set about destroying the place."

Everyone just sat in silence as Shiro just sat there looking terrible.

"We need to go now!" Shiro once again tried standing up. But the moment, he did, his face got ghostly pale and he almost fell back over.

"Shiro, that blast from my staff has weakened you. Give it an hour and you should be back to normal," Allura took Shiro's left hand and guided him back towards the training room floor. She then got Keith to help rest Shiro's back against her shoulder, "Then we will go see if your vision is true."

She rested her free hand on his shoulder and soon found herself sitting beside a sound asleep Paladin.

 


	3. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2:  
_

_"You won't be able to escape!" A voice called out in the darkness, "It is my destiny to help Zarcon take back the black lion and I won't let anyone stand in my way of victory!"_

_"This has got to be a dream!" Shiro thought to himself as he dodged an attack that he could only see when it was close._

_"What makes you think this is a dream?" Shiro cowered onto the seemingly nonexistent floor and tried to cover his head. He didn't want to be in this anymore, he wanted out. Or at the very least, know who was talking to him._

_He felt claws running down his back, not going deep enough to cause any pain, but it was hard enough to let him know a presence was there._

_"You're not real!" Shiro tried convincing himself that, "You're just a figment of my imagination!"_

_Then it changed to Zarcon's command ship. He soon found himself observing his first ever fight with Haggar. It was pitch black around them as the deceiving images of the witch soon dissipated as she clawed Shiro's side. He watched as the purple colored wound soon appeared, but bigger this time, stretching from just below his armpit to his hips. Shiro reeled back as the pain over took his senses. This was different than before and it scared him._

_"You are too weak!" The voice spoke and this time the attack made contact, causing Shiro to go flying across the darkness away from the witch and the cause of so much pain._

* * *

Shiro awoke with a start. He found himself in his room, covered in blankets. He became confused as to how he even ended up back in his quarters. He felt his side and realized it was all a dream. Haggar didn't attack him, there was no purple wound and there was most certainly no darkness outside of the darkness of space that surrounded the ship.

 He felt the blankets fall off of his shoulders and land across his bare legs as he sat up. Shiro knew he had to leave this space to clear his head and the only thing he could think of was to go bask in the glow of the black lion.

He changed out of his street clothes and back into his Paladin uniform and went to the black lion's hangar. He was greeted with a friendly growl when he entered.

"Hey," Shiro looked up and the massive mechanical marvel. The black lion leaned down to greet her paladin with a fond gesture. It always amazed Shiro that a large mechanical wonder such as the lion could have such instincts as a real lion did.

Once he was inside the lion, he could feel her curiosity over why he was up and in his armor at this hour of the night.

"I just couldn't sleep," Shiro sat down in the pilot's seat. He felt the dissatisfaction rolling off the shared bond. She knew he was hiding something and wasn't going to let him get away with answering like he just did.

Shiro sighed.

"I had this...dream..no vision. A vision of the people of the planet Pollux in terrible danger," Shiro entered the mouth of the beast, "I have to go check it out for myself."

The lion was placated with his answer, letting Shiro plug in coordinates to Pollux. Shiro knew that he was taking a great risk not telling the others what he was up to, but he couldn't let innocent people take the brunt of something he could prevent. 

For the lion the trip seemed to take minutes. For Shiro, however, it seemed to take hours. But once they entered the atmosphere of the planet, Shiro let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

Shiro flew to the nearest city to see if he could glean any information from the natives of planet Pollux, but when he got there, an uneasy feeling washed over him. There were no people out and about, going about their daily lives. 

And worst of all, there was no Galra sneaking around and destroying things either. For all Shiro could tell, the natives of the planet up and left without a single word.

He was startled from his deep thoughts when the black lion started to growl. 

"What's going on girl?" Shiro looked out the cockpit in earnest, hoping that whatever the black lion was seeing, if she was even seeing anything, he could spot as well.

The screen in front of him lit up and zoomed in on a certain spot in the street right below them. Standing right beneath them was a Galra soldier who seemed to be peering up at them. 

"See if you can capture him so we can ask questions," Shiro pressed the auto-pilot button and let the black lion take control. She then reached out her massive paw and attempted to trap the soldier in her grasp, but the guy saw it coming and began to run away.

" _You won't get away that easily!"_ Shiro jumped at the new voice that entered his head.

"Did you just talk?" He frantically looked around the cockpit as if the source of the voice had come from someone within.

" _I've always been able to talk, but I haven't been able to connect until you made out bond stronger a while back,"_ She tried pouncing again and this time she seemed to find her mark as she used both paws this time to trap the soldier in her grasp., " _I've got him!"_

She opened her paws just enough so that Shiro could see and confirm that she had indeed captured their quarry.

"Let me out! I'll go get some answers," The chair  retracted back allowing him room to stand. He soon found himself inside the mouth of the very robot that he piloted and soon found himself in it's hands.

Shiro activated his prosthetic arm, courteously given to him by the Galra. He walked cautiously approached the soldier who seemed to recognize Shiro and was trying his very best to get as far away as possible.

"What is going on here?" Shiro stopped, but pointed his activated arm towards the soldier, "I want to know everything so please don't spare any details."

"I....uh.....I.I.I....I don't know....anything I swear!" The soldier had backed himself into one of the black lion's claws.

"Then why were you spying on me?" Shiro had completely cornered the Galran and looked intently into his eyes.

"I...I have been stationed here for sometime. There isn't much action here and when I heard the sound of the lion's engines, I thought I'd investigate!"

"What happened to these people?"

"They have built the city underneath the ground for fear of involvement in the war. But they are well hidden," The soldier fidgeted underneath Shiro's gaze, "I have been tasked with tracking down the location of the city, but have had no such luck.

"Who is your commanding officer?" Shiro placed his hand dangerously close to the guy's face.

"H...H..He hasn't told me his name," The soldier stuttered even more and tried to get away even more, "He's only told me that he works underneath Emperor Zarcon directly."

Shiro deactivated his hand and proceeded to head back towards the black lion's open jaws.

"I warn you, Champion," The soldier stood and walked a few steps forward, "This commander isn't to be messed with!"

Shiro paused in his assent back towards the lion. He thought about it for a few seconds and then continued his trek up. Something was definitely not right here and He was going to find out what was going on.

Shiro settled back into lion's seat. He punched a few buttons on the control panel before setting up a communication's link back towards the Castle.

"Princess Allura, this is Shiro do you read me?"

" _Shiro! There you are! Everyone's been worried sick_!" The rest of the team crowded behind the princess to see their leader, " _Where have you been_?"

"I'm on Pollux. More specifically the planet's surface," Shiro fiddled with the controls of the lion, "I have discovered that there aren't any life readings or any signs of activity."

" _Really_?" Coran popped into the camera, seeming very eager to hear Shiro's words, " _What happened_?"

Shiro explained everything that the soldier told him, making sure to spare no detail himself.

That is, the only thing he failed to mention was the uneasy feeling he'd been having since he entered the atmosphere.

"Well the Galra are here, but not in the way I though they would be. Apparently the natives have built a secret city under the ground and the Galra have been searching for it ever since."

" _But my scans indicate that there is nothing. Even underneath the ground_ , " The uneasy feeling that he had at the beginning returned, stronger this time.

" _Champion_!" A voice talked politely into Shiro's mind, " _Champion, you were right! There is something up_!"

It sounded like it was coming from the lion, but the voice seemed to be persistent. It kept on calling his name and then the title the Galra had given to him during his stay in prison.

As the voice continued, a presence started to grow inside Shiro's mind. He then saw a purple orb appear in front of him, enticing him into and seemingly endless state of bliss.

But then the presence became painful. Something was trying to invade his mind, just like the many times, Shiro had been on the other end of Zarcon's attack. He let on a involuntary cry of alarm as a sharp pain erupted in Shiro's temples. He wasn't about to let the person in, but it was proving difficult to keep them at bay.

" _Shiro, what's going on_?" Keith called out to the black paladin.

"Someone....is trying to...get into my mind!" Shiro clenched his teeth and his fists  as a new wave of pain overcame him. This time though it came with a sense of weakness.

" _Help is on the way, Shiro_!" Allura spoke up, " _Don't let them win_!"

"If I were you Princess, I would call off that help," the pressure in his head subsided but soon found an arm wrapped around his neck in a strangle hold.

 


	4. Chapter 3

"Let go of me!" Shiro struggled against his captor's grasp.

"With pleasure!" And with those two words, Shiro was flung to the floor of the cockpit as if he was a rag doll. He shook his head a few times to clear the spots from his head and try to come to terms over the fact he was pretty sure he heard two voices.

Then he felt a clawed hand attack his right side. He felt the sharp pain as his flesh was ripped open and the effects of magic started to take hold. Shiro knew immediately who it one of them were.

"Haggar," Shiro shifted to his knees, all the while holding his side right underneath his right arm. He powered up his arm and charged at the witch. She dodged one attack and as Shiro was readying himself to take another shot, something caught his wrist and threw him against the opposite wall.

"You're a feisty one, I'll give you that," Shiro could recognize that voice from anywhere. 

"Zarcon!" Panic overtook Shiro as he tried to get some distance between himself and the emperor of the enemy. 

"Princess Allura, I have captured your black paladin," Shiro gasped in pain as he was lifted by his neck to be in full view of his team, "Call off the rest of the paladins, and I will make sure this one doesn't suffer much."

Shiro heard the audible gasp of the princess and the cries of protest coming from the other paladins. This only caused Zarcon to squeeze more tightly than before, effectively cutting off Shiro's airflow.

" _Shiro you must fight him!"_ Keith called out to his friend, " _You can't let him beat you!"_

The red lion came into the viewport of the black one and everyone could practically feel the anger flowing off of the red lion as it's leader and head was threatened by the one who wanted ultimate control. This surprised Shiro as he thought they were light years away. They must have started their journey to Pollux the moment they found Shiro missing.

"Keith......back off! There's......ahh........nothing I can do!" Shiro struggled to talk through the comlink on his helmet as the air in his lungs started to grow thin. He wanted Keith to know that everything would be alright, but couldn't get enough oxygen in his system to even finish his thoughts.

"Red paladin, I give you five seconds to back up or your leader's blood will be on your hands," Zarcon activated a blade that had been out of sight until then and pressed it against Shiro's right side near his chest, "I won't hesitate to kill him."

Shiro knew that was an empty threat. If Zarcon wanted him dead, he would have done so instead of sneaking up behind him and capturing him.

"Keith.....back off," Shiro all but whispered the command out to Keith.

The three occupants of the black lion watched as the red lion hovered in it's spot for a few more seconds before flying off and everyone hearing the commands to not assist. Shiro breathed a sigh of relief as he watched his team in the distance fly off. He was then released and collapsed to the ground coughing, ripping his helmet off in the process and breathing in real relief when air flooded his lungs.

He then felt Haggar's deranged hand make contact with the wound she had created earlier. First he felt pressure against his side. But then he felt a searing pain mixed with the feeling of small amounts of his blood trickling down his side. It took everything in Shiro's power to not give into the pain and make some sort of noise or move away, because he knew, from experience if he did things would get much worse. 

Haggar sat in that position for about ten seconds, pressing down on the wound ever so often. Shiro watched her out of the corner of his eye and saw that she was eyeing him also.His blood froze as he noticed her stop and make full eye contact. She smirked and then gave one final, hard press down on the wound, making Shiro scream. Haggar then stood 

"You won't be able to run away from us this time," Shiro slowly sat up against the back of the seat of the cockpit, left hand across the wound Haggar had given him and glared up at her and Zarcon who were both staring down at him, breathing heavily as the pain came in waves, "I just placed a tracker inside you. You will never be able to escape again."

Dread overtook Shiro. If the witch was telling the truth and she did place a tracker inside of him, then he was as good as done for. He would have to let the team know somehow that there would be no way to rescue him without putting those he cared about in danger. 

Shiro was ripped from his thoughts when Zarcon roughly took Shiro's mechanical arm and forced him into the pilot's seat. 

"You will fly us to the command shuttle orbiting this planet. If you so attempt to contact your friends in anyway, I will make sure you suffer for it," Zarcon gripped both the back of the chair and Shiro's shoulders, firmly rooting the black paladin to the seat. Shiro could feel Zarcon's metal armor pieces eating into his shoulders. 

Shiro hesitated at first, but when Zarcon squeezed his shoulders just a bit tighter, Shiro started up the lion and proceeded to the coordinates Zarcon provided.

I didn't take long for them to make it to the biggest battle cruiser the Galra possessed and Shiro had seen. It was twice the size of the normal frigate and pack quite the firepower. Shiro counted at least two ion cannons if not more attached to the thing in various places on the hull.

" _I don't like this,"_ The black lion spoke again. She knew Shiro couldn't answer, due to the fact Zarcon could detect the conversation, but she could sense his discomfort with it too.

"Commander Zoran, we have successfully captured the black lion and it's paladin," Zarcon talked to his commander with an instance of pride, "Open hanger bay four and prepare a crew to take the prisoner aboard."

" _I'll get right on it, sir! Repit Saw_!" The commander was small and pudgy but seemed to know what he was doing because when they landed in hangar bay four, there was a squad of soldiers and sentries waiting for them.

Shiro stood to follow his two worst enemies out of the lion, when Haggar once again wrapped her mangled claws, this time around his neck, much like a collar. He then immediately felt magic rush through his neck and his muscles tensed up. He then felt hard metal cuffs clamp down on his wrists in addition to everything else.

"Don't try anything funny, Shiro," Haggar warned as I felt her other clawed hand rest on the wound she gave him earlier and sent magic through it too. Shiro's eyes darted open at the mention of his name.

"How do you know my name?" Shiro's voice quavered at the sound of his name coming from an enemy's voice. He tried wiggling away from Haggar's death grip, but it didn't work. The pain only grew in both places as the witch's magic intensified.

"We've known for sometime," Zarcon turned back around and stared Shiro straight in the eyes, "You are quite famous on Earth are you not?"

Shiro remained silent as he was escorted, rather painfully, out of the black lion and into the hangar. 

It seemed like a rather routine prisoner transfer. Guards surrounded Shiro, Haggar and Emperor Zarcon and proceeded towards the exit. 

The one thing that caused Shiro to panic however is that he saw a gurney sitting amongst the crew of the ship and standing right in front of it was a Galra man who looked a lot like the earth's equivalent to a mad scientist. The Galra man held a device in his hand that Shiro could only assume was filled with something to knock him out with.

 He crumpled underneath Haggar's grasp and she let him fall to his knees. She walked around him to where she was no longer facing Shiro from behind, but he was looking straight at her.

Shiro flinched when Haggar reached to grab his head. She placed her thumbs on his temples and her hands around his ears. She started saying words in a language only the druids understood. Almost immediately, Shiro felt a pressure in the back of his head, which caused him to get dizzy. 

He tried grabbing at Haggar's hands, but Zarcon quickly took hold of them and held them behind his back. Shiro tried breaking free from the Emperor's grasp, but Zarcon pressed with his free hand against Shiro's back which immobilized him.

" _You can't them win my Guardian!"_  The black lion called out to Shiro, " _She's trying to weaken your bond with me!"_

Shiro closed his eyes and focused on the mental bond that he held with his lion. He focused on how far then had come in the last year and he focused on all the battles that he had with her. He focused on relieving the strain that came with trying to keep Zarcon out of his mind.

He could feel Haggar's presence weakening as he continued to focus on the bond. But he could also sense her frustration as Shiro continued to gain ground. 

She eventually let go when she realized she wasn't gaining any ground with him.

"His bond with the black lion is stronger that I anticipated," Shiro slowly opened his eyes and  watched as Haggar stood and made this report to Zarcon, "It will take a lot of work to break this one."

"Just leave that to me," Zarcon then twisted Shiro's arms in directions they should never go. Shiro arched his back in an attempt to alleviate the pain, but this resulted in more pain. But it was soon gone as Zarcon forced Shiro into Haggar's awaiting grasp, "In the meantime, knock him out and we'll figure out what our next move is."

Shiro watched the mad scientist make his way towards him. If looks could kill, Shiro would have already been dead. He watched this Galra soldier raised the hand with the device and proceeded to rush him. 

"No!" Shiro stood quickly up in a panic, knocked Haggar out of his way and ran back towards the black lion.

The black lion even seemed to respond as she leapt forward and placed a paw down in between Shiro and their enemies. Shiro hid behind her leg and tried frantically to keep away from everyone, especially Haggar. But he knew he would have to find a way to break the cuffs if he had any chance of leaving the ship in one piece. He activated his hand and attempted to use it to cut the cuffs off.

Haggar tried to follow Shiro, except she was only met with opposition from the black lion. The lion took a swipe at the witch, which she teleported tactically and stealthily to where she ended up directly in front of the black paladin. 

Shiro froze. He usually would attack, but something in the back of his mind kept him rooted to the floor. He watched as Haggar stopped a few feet away. Shiro stared her in the eyes, not taking his gaze off of her. He then felt the cuffs fall off and stood at the ready in case she attacked him.

Shiro felt his heart pounding in his chest. He was face to face with an enemy he would rather not face, was injured and a prisoner. This wasn't some ordinary fight with one of the robeasts that Haggar would send his way, this was the mastermind herself. 

He watched as Haggar paused for a few seconds and the she charged at him. Shiro lashed out at her with his bionic arm, but found that she disappeared before he made contact with her body. He then noticed the purple orb from before and tried to look away. To no avail.

This time, the orb made Shiro feel so weak, that he collapsed in a heap of human limbs on the ground. 

"Like I said, Champion," Haggar's grip on Shiro's mind grew, "There is no way to escape this time."

Shiro soon found himself face to face with the mad scientist Galra who caused him to panic in the first place. He felt the creature kneel onto Shiro's injured side to keep him still. He then felt pressure on his head causing Shiro to have to stay painstakingly still.

Then the dreaded and panic inducing part came.

Shiro felt the device touch his neck. He tried to squirm, however being weak and having a massive weight on one's body proved to make it more difficult that Shiro thought it would be. 

Panic filled Shiro's mind as he tried to use his shoulder to block the device's path. He stopped in his tracks when he soon found himself flashing back to the many times he was put under by both the Galra and the people back on earth. He remembered every time as if it was yesterday that everything happened to him. He closed his eyes in sheer terror, not wanting to relive the horrible days as a prisoner.

He then felt the warm trickle of magic seep into his neck. Mixed with the magic coming from Haggar, he felt his mind slowly fall into oblivion. He wasn't completely asleep, but he was vaguely aware that the black lion started to attack. He could feel the sheer anger that the lion was producing, and then he could feel nothing. 

He could feel nothing because Zarcon used this weak moment in Shiro's life to penetrate his mind and block the black lion's bond from mental sight.

" _You are not meant to pilot the lion weakling,"_ Zarcon's face appeared inside Shiro's mind, " _I will take it once and for all and there's nothing you can do about it."_

With that, Shiro found himself floating into an endless state of darkness as he listened to the sound of the black lion fighting for her life.

 

 


End file.
